This small painting belongs to a type known as bambocciate, literally 'little doll', named after a group of artists led by Pieter van Laer who was nicknamed Il Bamboccio because of his hunchback. Van Laer was one of a group of Netherlandish artists working in Rome and producing scenes of everyday life.

In this example, a Franciscan saint hands out bowls of soup to the poor. This work could have formed one of a series of Seven Acts of Mercy, burying the dead, tending the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the prisoner.